


Letters from the other side of the door

by carrieasagiri



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Anna - Freeform, Arendelle Sisters, Childhood Memories, Disney, Disney Princesses - Freeform, Fluff, Letters, Other, Princess - Freeform, Princess Anna (Disney), Queen - Freeform, Queen Elsa (Disney), Revised Version, Sisters, elsa - Freeform, snow sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 14:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13168779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrieasagiri/pseuds/carrieasagiri
Summary: Anna just turned thirteen and received a stationary set as a birthday present. So, she decided that the person to whom she most wanted to write to was her sister.





	Letters from the other side of the door

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic back in April 2014 when tumblr celebrated the "Anna's week". This was my entry. The first version was published on my tumblr. Since it was written in a hurry without the proofreading of a beta reader, it had several mistakes. A month later, a friend of mine proofread it, and I published a polished version at fanfiction.net.   
> Now, I've got an account here and I wanted to publish some of my oldies while I'm still working on my current projects. I corrected some details and I added other ones to make it more canonical after the release of Olaf's Frozen Adventure.   
> English is not my native language so I know that I need to improve a lot.

Anna had always had the need to express herself loudly and openly. In fact, everything about her had been open and especially loud since she was born. Perhaps growing up alone, without friends of her age and away from her sister made the princess' need more obvious. 

When she was a little girl, her sister Elsa meant the whole world to her, even more than her parents. The two sisters used to share everything: bedroom, toys, books, nanas, games, and all the fun. Then, suddenly, Elsa shut her out, and she never knew why. So, when you don’t know something, you try to find it out, or at least you try to fill in the gaps with your imagination. Through the years, Anna tried to figure out the reason, and the only thing she came up with was that her sister was mad at her. She didn’t know why though.

Anna didn’t get all the special attention that Elsa received. Being the heir, Elsa was more important; at least that was Anna thought. She didn’t know the truth behind her parents’ special treatment toward her sister, and she accepted her role as the spare princess, which truly meant that nobody was paying attention to her.

Being the spare wasn’t so bad after all because it meant she was still a princess and that was something convenient, especially when it came to presents. Every birthday, Anna received a lot of presents, not only from her family but from other kingdoms too. Most of them were coming from people she didn’t know at all, but who was she to complain about that? After all, being a princess had its perks and getting several gifts was one of them.

However, when Anna turned thirteen, the present she treasured most was the one she got from her mother. Although she always cherished anything her parents gave her, that time the present was special. Being aware of her daughter’s solitude, the queen had given Anna a stationery set. Writing letters and keeping a journal could be a way to keep Anna busy allowing her to express herself.   
Queen Idunn had decided it without discussing it with her husband. She regretted not being more committed regarding the princesses’ education and upbringing. Actually, it wasn’t a lack of commitment from her; it was her role as a woman and as the queen consort. It was expected she was devoted to her husband’s words and choices because above all he was the king. She couldn’t deny that she didn’t completely agree with the way that King Agnarr had been handling Elsa’s issues. She barely could do anything for Elsa, however, she was still able to do something for Anna.

Anna didn’t have any friends to exchange letters with, and following her mother’s advice about writing to the princesses from the neighbouring kingdoms felt a little bit awkward even for her. What she had really wanted since she had memory was to talk with Elsa. Let her know about her adventures around the castle, tell her about the ridings with her pony and the handsome boy who take care of it, ask her about the kind of stuff only an older sister can answer. So, for Anna, having a stationery set to write was the equivalent of having another way to approach her secluded sister.

Knocking on Elsa’s door was overdue. Even so, Anna never gave up and she kept trying for a while. Who knew? Maybe someday Elsa would decide that being isolated in her room was overdue too. Anyway, writing a letter was something totally new, even when it felt kind of weird because they were living under the same roof and their rooms were next door. Actually, it wasn’t so new as she thought. Every Christmas, she sent Elsa a present under the door. However, a Christmas card wasn’t the same as a letter.

Anna’s first letter was about her birthday presents and the amount of chocolate she ate that day. She described the details of the cake, the postcards she received, and the special gift her mother had given her. That night, once she finished the writing, she escaped from her room for a minute and slipped the envelope under her sister’s door.

Most part of the next day, she was anxiously waiting for a reply or at least a signal, but nothing happened. That very night she slipped another letter; this time was about her pony and how much she wanted a bigger horse, but her father had told her to wait to be a little bit older. She complained that she was already old enough, and riding a pony was for little girls. Besides, she was a very mature princess, and she needed a horse in order to impress the stable boy who happened to be so handsome. Elsa didn’t reply either, and Anna started feeling disappointed. But that wasn’t an excuse for her to give up. So, maybe Elsa wasn’t interested in horses and birthday presents or stable boys, so maybe could be a good idea ask her about what she did or how she felt instead of only telling her things.

Anna decided to write a longer letter, but this time besides talking about herself, she showed a genuine interest in Elsa’s concerns. The real problem was that Anna didn’t know so much about her sister’s likes or hobbies because they barely talked. Crossing paths in the corridor or sporadically sharing meals with their parents wasn’t enough to learn what they liked. Sadly, all the answers Anna wrote never received a reply either.

Elsa’s silence was cold and sharp as her ice power. However, Anna was unaware of the reason behind that silence or her sister having any power at all. So, she kept thinking her sister was mad at her for any reason she didn’t know either.

After a month of writing letters without getting any reply, one morning, Anna saw an envelope under the door of her room. In the beginning, she was sceptical; it couldn’t be possible Elsa had replied to her letters after all that time. But seriously, who on earth beside her sister could be sending her a letter to her room?

Anna took the envelope and opened it; there was a folded piece of paper inside. Once she unfolded it, she found a drawing of a snowman made with ink. It was Olaf! The same snowman they had built when they were little girls, and Anna always had put him in the Christmas present she had given Elsa every year. The little guy was surrounded by an inscription in runes that she couldn’t read at all. 

Biting her lower lip, Anna stared at the drawing for a while. She was wondering what her sister was trying to tell her. At least, Elsa wasn’t upset with her, so maybe she could keep writing her letters. And so she did it. And Elsa replied to them sporadically with drawings of snowmen, snowflakes, or crocus flowers. 

One day, Anna decided to try to decipher the runes in Elsa’s letters. She regretted not having paid attention to her tutor’s class, otherwise, she wouldn’t have to look up the runes in the old books at her father’s office. 

Entering the office while the king was absent was a big adventure, even if the king was her father. Anna knew that the old books and mainly the ones with old runes, which were used for protocol things, were on the higher shelf. 

Climbing was something natural for her, if she was able to climb out of her bed-chamber window, climbing a shelf was a piece of cake, or so she thought. The problem wasn’t the shelf or her ability to climb; it was the statuettes that were over the shelves. The crash of shattering china was loud enough to catch the attention of Gerda, Kai, and of course the king. As a consequence, Anna was grounded for a week of being confined in her room. And she never learned the runes.

Time passed and they got older. The exchange of letters and pictures came to an end. Anna reached the age of fifteen convinced that her sister didn’t care so much about her and that the reason for that indifference was her fault. After all, she was clumsy and eccentric, not the type of sister a future queen could cope with. No more letters, no more knocking on the door, no more invitations to play around, just silence and solitude. However, she kept sending her Christmas presents because she loved her sister even when Elsa didn’t talk her. And no one deserved spent Christmas without getting a gift.

xxxXXxxx

After being focused on her royal duties for a couple of hours, Elsa took a break, which chiefly consisted of drinking tea and relaxing for fifteen minutes.

After the last Christmas and the visit to the attic which had lead to discover several childhood memories, Elsa brought some personal belongings to her office that she kept inside a locked drawer on her desk. 

She felt in the mood for taking a look at them, so she opened the drawer and started looking at a pack of envelopes. They were letters. A warm smile curved the queen’s lips. They were the letters Anna had sent her through the door when they were younger. Elsa started reading them and recalled memories of closed doors, isolation, and invitations to build snowmen.

A pounding at the door woke her up from her dream state. It was Anna for sure; after all those years she had learned to recognize the way her sister knocked at the door.

“Elsa, are you in there?” the princess asked behind the door.

“Come in, Anna,” the queen invited her to enter.

“What are you doing? Can I join you for tea?” Anna sat down on the chair in front of Elsa’s desk without waiting for her sister’s reply.

Elsa put the letters on the desk and smiling at Anna, she poured some tea into the spare cup next to hers.

“Here you are,” Elsa said, offering her the cup.

The princess was sipping her tea while looking at the papers spread over the desk.

“Do you remember these?” Elsa asked, holding a couple of letters in her hands.

Anna dropped her jaw and got still and silent for the first time in a very long time.

“Are those…?”

“Yes, your letters.”

“But… I thought you had thrown them away…”

“What? Why?”

“I mean, you only replied me with drawings and never told me anything…”

“Oh, Anna…”

“I’ve got all the pictures you sent me. Wanna see them?”

Elsa doubted for a second, her break was coming to an end soon, and she had loads of work to do. 

“Come on! Let’s go to my room!” 

Anna was bouncing in the chair, the next moment she was taking Elsa by the hand, and they were running through the corridors. The queen had a mixed expression on her face -she was unsure and elated at the same time. Her work could wait a little bit longer, but her sister… her sister had been waiting for thirteen years…

Once inside the room, Anna went to her vanity table and took some papers out of one of the drawers. Then, she sat down on the bed and patting the space next to her, invited Elsa to take a seat too.

Elsa couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of her drawings, remembering the nights she spent awake making them.

“I treasured them all this time…” Anna said, looking at them with a mixture of sadness and sweetness.

“Even when I couldn’t understand a single rune you wrote…”

“What?!” Elsa exclaimed. “You couldn’t read them?”

“Nope. They’re old runes! I never paid attention to the Old Norse lessons! I can barely write my name in runes! What’s the point in learning an extinct language?”

“Oh, Anna… I thought you could look them up. I wrote it in runes to encrypt the messages…”

“But all the rune books were mainly at papa’s office, and I wasn’t allowed to go there without permission… not after I broke the sculptures he had on the shelves… while I was climbing to reach out the rune books so I could read your letters…”

Elsa began laughing out loud like she hadn’t done in years. She remembered so well that incident and all the fuss it had caused.

“Hey! That wasn’t funny! Papa was scary when he was angry!”

“I know he was! But I was grateful to you back then because those sculptures were truly ugly!”

Now was Anna’s turn to laugh. Elsa kept staring at her sister fondly still amused by the memories.

“I’ll give you a rune book I’ve got in my bedroom. Be right back.”

Anna waited looking at her sister’s drawings and blamed herself for having been such a fool not to know how to read those damned runes.

Elsa got back carrying an old and heavy book.

“Look them up, it’s easy,” The queen said, giving the book to Anna.

The princess began with the first picture, the one with Olaf.The inscription was at the bottom of the drawing and with the help of the book, Anna was able to translate it letter by letter.

“I…w…an…t…to…bu..il..d…a…sn…o…w…man…to…o. I want to build a snowman too?!”

Elsa nodded. Anna took the other picture that was full of snowflake patterns.

“I…m…i…ss…you…”

Elsa kept silent.

Then, Anna started reading the third one that had a crocus surrounded by tiny flowers.

“I…l…o…ve…you…sis…”

Now it was Anna’s turn to be silent.

“I’ve been such a fool…”

“Anna…”

“No, Elsa! I was so self-centred writing you silly things about me, and I didn’t take the time to look the runes up and try to understand their meaning…”

“Anna, you were a kid… you only wanted to chat with someone…”

“No, Elsa. I only wanted to chat with you.”

“I was self-centred, too, and selfish. I assumed you would understand, and I didn’t tell you anything else. I was afraid of being caught and if that had happened, we couldn’t be in touch anymore. I was afraid to open up to you and hurt you again…”

Anna jumped over Elsa and hugged her. She was sobbing with her face buried in her sister’s neck. Elsa hugged her back and started crying too.

“It’s never too late, ” the queen whispered between sobs.

“Uh?”

“Now we can say everything we were keeping all this time.”

Still, with tears in her eyes, Anna stared at Elsa.

“I missed you a lot Anna,” the queen continued. “There wasn’t a single day I didn’t think about you and how much I wanted to play with you and share everything.”

“You weren’t mad at me?”

“Anna… how could I be mad at you? I just… I was protecting you and you know why…”

“Soooo , sisters forever?” Anna asked with a sheepish smile on her lips.

“Sisters forever,” Elsa asserted. “No more closed doors. No more shutting out. No more letters. Just you and I like in the old times.” Elsa added holding Anna’s hands.

“Like it always should have been,” Anna replied, holding Elsa’s hands more tightly.


End file.
